


you’re looking crazy, you’re looking wrong (it looks like we’re gonna get along)

by Anonymous



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different Mastermind (Dangan Ronpa), Fluff, M/M, Mastermind Oma Kokichi, Mastermind Saihara Shuichi, Morally Ambiguous Character, Pre-Relationship, Virtual Reality, death is mentioned a lot bc this is danganronpa but it's mainly fluffy?, just two masterminds being soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27053020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: After all, there’s a reason the board in Kokichi’s room only labels Shuichi as trustworthy, because who else could Kokichi trust with the reality that he is the mastermind than the one he is so intimately intertwined with?(In which Shuichi and Kokichi are the masterminds of Danganronpa's fifty-third season.)
Relationships: Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 9
Kudos: 370
Collections: Anonymous





	you’re looking crazy, you’re looking wrong (it looks like we’re gonna get along)

**Author's Note:**

> I was re-watching some V3 trials and just got immediately hit with the need to write this. I originally got obsessed with the Masterminds Protagonist/Antagonist idea all the way back in 2013 when I fell down the Komahina rabbit hole, so wanting to use that kind of AU with Saiouma wasn't that surprising for me. I wrote this in two hours and didn't attempt to edit it so it's messy as hell, but eh.

If you had asked Ouma Kokichi just a single year ago what the future had in store for him, he probably would not have guessed that he is busy planning his own murder.

Shuichi is standing by the monitors, absent-mindedly flickering through camera after camera, although his eyes keep straying to where Kokichi is bent over the notebook he never dares to take out of their shared space, legs folded up to his chest as he frantically scribbles away. 

He is in the final stages of putting together his plan now, the stage set and the scripts mostly complete. It’s a little more questionable than what most masterminds would strive for, given that the whole thing relies on his virtual heart stopping, but if Kokichi is anything, he’s an over-achiever. 

It’s quieter than usual here. The two of them are lucky the walls are soundproof because Kokichi used to waste his free time away practicing both his signature laughter and the insults he’d throw Miu’s way as Shuichi gave him pointers on how to be even more of an irritating bastard. 

“What are you planning this time?” Shuichi asks, trying his best to seem both disinterested and exhausted by Kokichi’s scheming. Poor Shuichi, he’s never done a job of faking nonchalance, especially when his partner is involved.

His eyes are already swirling, the system that governs this fake reality doing a spectacular job of showcasing his true nature. Kokichi always wonders how the others never pick up on how empty Shuichi’s eyes are when he’s deep in his role as the nervous detective, or how alive and also a little bit deluded they are when he peers down at Kokichi. 

Shuichi is a good actor, there’s no doubt about that. Team Danganronpa wouldn’t have picked him to play an active role if he always fumbled through his lines. He’s just not as good as masking his soul as Kokichi happens to be.

Kokichi stretches up his hand to pat his cheek. “Nothing for you to concern yourself with, mister detective. You agreed to let me figure this one out on my own, didn’t you?”

Shuichi scrunches his nose in falsified distaste at the mention of his Ultimate title, although Kokichi can tell he is secretly preening. They had of course taken on roles that suited them very well, hand-picked from the very long list that their supervisor had provided. 

Shuichi doesn’t have to try very hard to be a solid detective. He’s always been perceptive enough for the job that Kokichi is pretty sure the only reason he didn’t go down that path in real life is because he’d get a little too excited by the crime scenes. And well, Kokichi _is_ a leader, just not necessarily a supreme one of an organisation with tens-of-thousands of members. 

The reward for agreeing to be the next mastermind of this eagerly-awaited fifty-third season of Danganronpa was hefty, enough that Kokichi could fund all the college fees and lives thereafter of his members when their absentee parents couldn’t. And Shuichi - well, Shuichi is not exactly entirely stable even on good days and it seemed he had joined of his own will without any concern for the final outcome. 

Kokichi likes that about him, actually. The higher ups at Team Danganronpa had shoved him into Kokichi’s open arms, since he himself couldn’t say a single sentence without slipping a lie in and was likely the one with the most tolerance for any stranger partners-in-crime. Kokichi is not so sure why they like to act as if they exist on some moral high ground, considering they are the ones broadcasting the killing games, but he can’t judge them for trying to appear less morally wrong. 

Shuichi is a strange concoction, naturally shy and quiet but full of vibrant and definitely brutal ideas that would masterfully make one of Danganronpa’s most memorable seasons, if the broadcasting data that flashes up on their computers is correct. He naturally fits alongside the fictional blackened they had crafted together, taking care to have a much more interesting character roster than the last few seasons.

Maybe it’s wrong to think of the people Kokichi co-exists with as just characters, but all of them had signed up to be moulded into fiction, after all. Not that they remember that, of course.

Kokichi is not sure why most of them decided to come here, actually, since Shuichi was the one pre-occupied with their audition tapes while Kokichi helped the design team work on the environment for the game. He knows Rantaro at least, since he was the star of the last season who had decided to come back all over again, as if he had missed the challenge. 

He was Kokichi’s favourite and so it was easy to guess that he wished for the prizes that came with being a survivor, using the money to travel for his sisters’ sake, an admirable effort even if he had missed out on the largest sum this time. 

Kokichi could almost feel sorry for him. Could be the primary word in that sentence, since he knows exactly what Rantaro did to win Season Fifty-Two. Seriously, he’s never seen anyone cover up a murder that well. 

He isn’t exactly one to talk, but he doesn’t quite get why they all decided to join. Most of them were healthy enough to live life to the fullest, even if they weren’t the richest people in the world. The mental toll this will take might not be worth this risk. 

But hey, at least Team Danganronpa has all the best psychologists in the area on standby and enough money to fund group therapy for the next twenty-or-so years. Not that therapy is the miracle cure to all the problems these kids are about to be faced with. Kokichi is pretty sure about 75% of the previous contestants had gone through breakdowns from the media attention alone. 

While Team Danganronpa aren’t exactly the most ethically solid company around, everyone here is lucky that they aren’t unhinged enough that they’ll just kill people off with no chance of revival. The fact that all of them are in a virtual reality still hasn’t settled in yet, even though Kokichi had known exactly where he was going when they plugged him in, not when Shuichi’s skin feels so warm beneath his touch. 

And while he’ll feel the phantom pains of this plan for months, Kokichi is no quitter. If he is putting on the charade of a liar hiding his desire to desperately end this killing game, then he is going to go all out. He is probably a fan favourite already, knowing how the audience reacted to Komaeda Nagito in the second season. Being an antagonist has its perks and Kokichi is going to milk them for all its worth. The pay-check for this will be insane. 

“A hydraulic press?” Shucihi leans over his shoulder, squinting at the messy scrawl of Kokichi’s handwriting as he raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

He looks a little put off by the thought. Kokichi agrees that it is probably a little extra of him to go for such a brutal end, but it’s one of the few possible ways to make a “unsolvable” case just like the character he is playing wants, although he is well aware Kaito probably won’t be able to keep up with the act for very long. 

Shuichi’s fingers tighten where they’ve decided to curl over Kokichi’s shoulder. Knowing Shuichi, he’s probably less disgusted by the severity of being crushed into pieces - despite common belief amongst some of the newer staff that had contacted him that were fooled by Shuichi’s TV-only disguise, they planned the executions together and it was absolutely not Kokichi’s idea to boil someone alive - and more so is preoccupied with Kokichi’s safety.

“You know better than anyone else that no one here actually stays dead, Shumai,” Kokichi points out.

“Still, I hate to think of you getting hurt,” Shuichi sighs, as if the thought alone is too much. Shuichi is weird like that. He pulled off the act of a grieving best friend so well, but he seemed to have barely any actual torment over Kaede’s death, likely an after effect of knowing that she’s probably wandering around the real world right now. 

But he gets genuinely concerned for Kokichi, no matter the circumstances, even if it’s just about the other contestants treating him so coldly, and it makes something akin to butterflies flutter in Kokichi’s chest. It’s probably moths, considering any affection for the team’s resident freak would always be a little twisted, but still. It makes him sappy in a way he’s not used to. It’s nice, almost makes Kokichi feel like his life is a little normal and not as if he is commandeering several teenagers to murder each other. 

“Don’t worry about me, worry about the show. The trial because of this should distract them for a bit, while you can work on pinning the blame on Tsumugi.” And of course, they had chosen the perfect candidate as their false mastermind. She’d done a very good job of avoiding suspicion so far, so Kokichi thinks she deserves a little taste of the spotlight. 

Kaito is too loud and obnoxious to be the stealthy one behind all of this, and he’s integral to Kokichi’s current plan too. Kiibo is the eyes for the audience, so neither of them could drag him into this when his destruction could ruin the camera angles. Himiko’s rage and subsequent sorrow at the deaths of Angie and Tenko had been too real, too raw, and then there’s Maki, who may not be the worst choice but surely isn’t the best either. 

Tsumugi exists as the perfect balance between too quiet to live and too loud to die and she has only lasted this long because she never gets in anyone’s way. The perfect pawn for Shuichi and Kokichi’s game and of course, they’ll all cling on to every lie Shuichi spins. It has been a very long time since the mastermind has made it out of a game victorious, but they have sworn that this time, they’ll win.

Kokichi can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they realise they made the wrong call, that the detective they had sworn was so innocent was actually the one behind this after all. It’s a little cruel of him, but Kokichi is going to absolutely laugh at Kaito’s expression when he finds out his sidekick manufactured the whole killing game. Who was the naive one between them really? Certainly not Kokichi. 

“I don’t think any of them will catch on, but you’ll have to be careful when I’m not here,” Kokichi murmurs, curling strands of his hair around his fingers as he thinks to himself. 

The more observant contestants - Rantaro, Angie, even Korekiyo he would begrudgingly admit - are long gone now. He doubts anyone will figure out Shuichi’s true self, not when he plays the main character of this scenario so well, but Kokichi lets himself be a little concerned about the sliver of a chance that someone will pick up on his partner’s little quirks. 

He’s too far in his own head that he doesn’t quite expect Shuichi to drape himself over his back. “I’m sorry,” Shuichi mumbles into his neck, the words slightly muffled, the position reminiscent of when Shuichi would pass out after a long day of work in their office and he’d have to drag the other back by his arms to their apartment. Kokichi misses the domesticity just a little, but being here is too fun to give up just yet. “About what I said earlier.”

Kokichi sighs, awkwardly reaching over to pat Shuichi’s head with his free hand. “I know I’m not alone, Shuichi. I have you, don’t I? I don’t care about the others as long as I have my beloved detective all to myself.” 

That’s the truth. Kokichi is a tiny bit apologetic for what he’s done to the others, considering they can’t even remember signing up for this hell, but that doesn’t mean he even likes them. But Shuichi - he loves Shuichi, with every inch of his tiny body he loves him, has done ever since Shuichi stumbled into the planning room for the first time with Kokichi’s favourite kind of dessert in one hand and a can of Panta in the other as some kind of peace offering. 

It seems to cheer Shuichi up and he rises from his place on Kokichi’s back. His lips brush over the curve of Kokichi’s cheek as he stands once more and Kokichi is pretty sure it’s an accident, although he can’t miss the slightly smug smile that appears in response to the pink that quickly spreads over Kokichi’s nose. He doesn’t leave Kokichi’s side, not when they don’t have much time together left in this virtual world, and Kokichi’s hand instinctively rises to where Shucihi’s own rests.

When they leave this school, they’ll be right back to square one, just two meaningless boys who found solace in causing despair to others when hope was out of their reach. The friends who had been the first to revere Shuichi as their saviour will turn their backs on the enemy and - well, they’ll just go back to their usual avoid-Ouma-at-all-costs routine with Kokichi. But none of that matters, not when Shuichi hovers over him, so willing to stick by him. 

All of them suspect Kokichi and none of them suspect Shuichi, because Shuichi is the protagonist and Kokichi is the distraction. They’re a perfect pair, matching each other’s flaws with a solid solution, masking their guilt with the deception that because Kokichi lies too much to be honest, Shuichi is simply the one they should turn to. They all run willingly into the orbit of their undoing. 

After all, there’s a reason the board in Kokichi’s room only labels Shuichi as trustworthy, because who else could Kokichi trust with the reality that he is the mastermind than the one he is so intimately intertwined with?

“I’ll be waiting for you on the other side, Saihara-chan.”


End file.
